European tuba tour?

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bort
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by bort »

Willson. Not because I own one, but because Switzerland is probably the most beautiful place in the world, in my eyes.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by royjohn »

Hi Mark,
Having been to Europe last year, after a fifteen year hiatus, I highly endorse your decision and encourage you to go ASAP. If you check the flight reservation sites (momondo, skyscanner) regularly and are willing to go off season, in the spring or fall, you can get to somewhere in Europe, probably Amsterdam, London or Brussels, for $450 or so, round trip from NYC or DC. We booked airbnb's in Belgium and Italy and had virtually no trouble and rates from 30 to 60 euros/day. Once you get to Europe, flights on Ryanair and other budget airlines are cheap to get to the city of your choice. You flight might be more if you cannot fly out of a hub in the East... rented a car in Italy for about ten days for about $150 for a nice Citroen diesel. The traffic in Italy really wasn't bad outside the big cities and I NEVER had a bad meal. We'll be going back this spring. Good luck!
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by UDELBR »

Visit Geretsried in southern Germany. In the same small town, you can see both Meinl-Weston and Nirschl shops. Plus, it's in the foot of the Alps.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by bort »

I've heard that Thein is a good place to visit as well. They make more trombones than anything else (I think), but perhaps that isn't a problem.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by roweenie »

UncleBeer wrote:Visit Geretsried in southern Germany. In the same small town, you can see both Meinl-Weston and Nirschl shops. Plus, it's in the foot of the Alps.
Meinlschmidt is there, too.

(Geretsried would be at the top of my list, and it's not too far from Munich, too.....)
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by UDELBR »

bort wrote:I've heard that Thein is a good place to visit as well. They make more trombones than anything else (I think), but perhaps that isn't a problem.
I spent a week there while on a jazz tour. Much of what they do is just solder together components from parts suppliers (bells, valves, etc.).
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by gionvil »

If you happen to choose Italy ( needless to say I highly recommend that..!) pay a visit to G&P, it's located in the North,very close to Milano's main airport, the Alps and the region of the Lakes. Not a big factory maybe, but at least you see real craftmens at work. A lot of beautiful landscapes and small towns within a short driving distance.
And of course let me know as I'd be glad to meet for a good italian dinner!
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by apkujala »

bloke wrote:Geretsried production has (to a great extent, no?) migrated to eastern Germany and Brazil.
Nirschl and Meinl Weston shops are still there. Meinls are made in Markeneukirchen (i think) but the test room is in geretsried with most Buffet groups items (melton+b&s).

Nirschl depends on luck meaning his shop has only tubas that are not ready or just havent been sent to owner yet. Or rare occassion, waiting for silvering. So with him its useful to contact him beforehand to be sure he has something to test if needed.

Munich for sure is good place to go for tuba sightseeing.
Train to Geretsried takes like 30min or so, nice sights on the way and really good kebab place near train stop at Wolfrathshausen btw.
Also Miraphone factory is about 60km to east from Munich in town called Waldkreiburg. Very nice place to visit also.

Another almost close factory is Rudolf Meinl, for that we had a rental car and with autobahn it took about 2hrs from Munich.

Obviously in Munich you can find couple quite good orchestras too if interested in concerts.

Edit:
One good option as a tourist is to take a train from Munich to Innsbruck. Very nice place to visit and from there you can continue by train to Italy. We made an error with wife and went to all these places and now we need to go again.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by Oldschooltuba »

My only experience is from the FTW Youth Orchestra tour in the 19........ We went to the Alexander factory. Quite a treat. Mintz (sp).
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by hubert »

If you are planning to rent a car, it would be a nice tour from Munich to Geretsried (a.o. Meinl Weston, the Buffet Crampon showroom, Nirschl), from there to Waldkraiburg (Miraphone), then to Markneukirchen (B&S and other Buffet Crampon products, as well as a bunch of small specialized companies). From there you almost can jump to Kraslice in Czechia (former Graslitz), where Amati after WWII swallowed up all private companies that were established there. It still produces the largest numbers of wind instruments of all Europe (not only Amati, but all kind of "brands" and parts for assemblage elsewhere). Return tour via Diespeck-Neustadt an der Aisch, where Rudi Meinl and the Josef Klier companies can be found.
If you prefer the most beautiful nature and views drive from Munich via Geretsried to Switzerland (Willson).
If you want to see the most modern factory around, jump from the plane in Holland and visit Adams. Afterwards you always can decide to smoke a joint in Amsterdam :wink: :wink:
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by bort »

Or, just go to Europe and forget about tubas for a while. It's supposed to be a vacation, right?

Best suggestion, whatever you do... Don't vacation where there are lots of other Americans. Nothing more annoying than traveling thousands of miles, and meeting people from the same place as you.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by Bob Kolada »

bloke wrote:Forget "being crammed into airplanes", and forget "watching people do work".
Visit the Cumberland Plateau in the fall, or visit Maine, Nova Scotia, Alaska, or Montana in the summer.
Leave your musical instruments at home.

bloke "The most interesting tubas are those that are completely ready to play."

+1 on Alaska. I went there a few years ago and spent my days playing jazz, nights at roadhouse bars, and days off hiking the Denali.
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by bort »

Mark Finley wrote:Back in 99 we got a VIP tour of the Eastlake Ohio conn/King factory. That was the highlight of the vacation. I'd love to see the production of making tubas over in Europe
Not exactly shocked that the best part of your trip to Eastlake was the factory tour. :roll: :P
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by Ulli »

Not a factory, but don't miss the opportunity to visit: Thomann at Burgebrach

https://www.thomann.de/gb/wind_instruments.html" target="_blank

and FMB, Guetersloh

https://www.fmb-direkt.de/en/" target="_blank
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by tubeast »

Markneukirchen was interesting, but not primarily for the Tuba manufacturing.
B&S had not been prepared to welcome Tuba-tourists when I was there in 2008. But the Erzgebirge is unique for its traditional woodturning, toy- and Christmas decoration manufacturers. High quality glass-makers, too.

From Black Forest to northern Italy ?!?
Put Willson in Flums, Switzerland on Your list.

Depends on Your route, just Google-map the places I´m mentioning:
Fly to Frankfurt, Germany. Rent vehicle.
Short drive to Alexander, Mainz.

Then along Rhine river down towards Baden-Baden, which is where the Black Forest region begins. I strongly suggest exploring smaller destinations such as Wolfach on Bundesstrasse 294. http://www.dorotheenhuette.info/

From Freiburg im Breisgau take a trip via Basel and Zurich, Switzerland, to Flums to visit Willson. From there You have several opportunities to get to northern Italy, depending on the region that is of interest.

Taking the Autobahn may save time, but using County-roads will offer access to more picturesque sights.

Have fun.

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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by Three Valves »

I'd pick the one nearest to the Mercedes factory for a tour there also, or the one nearest to Munich for what should be obvious reasons...

:tuba:
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by marccromme »

I suggest you go and visit Marktneukirchen in Voigtland, near the border to Czech Republic.

There you find the factories of

Helmut Voigt (contrabass, bass and tenor trombones)

Jürgen Voigt (all sort of low brass)

Schmidt (mouthpieces)

B&S (tubas and euphs and other low brass)

Musikinstrument Museum (nice collection of trombones and the largest tuba ever build)

Mechanisches Musikinstrument Museum (very nice collection of auto-pianos, organs, early recording devices)

There is a very good turist information where one can book events, company visits with guided tour to the workshops

14 km away is Klingental where one finds two tuba builders (sorry, don't remember the name)

Nearby is Cerveny in Kraslice - a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, just across the border.

You can easily spend a week in that corner looking for interesting music stuff and testing a ton of instruments.

Try to inform yourself here: http://erlebniswelt-musikinstrumentenbau.de/en.html" target="_blank
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by cambrook »

Having visited the Willson factory I wouldn't place that at the top of my list.

It depends which part of Germany you want to visit. I think it would be interesting to visit Andreas Klingspor near Freiberg - he makes Gronitz tubas now
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by toobagrowl »

marccromme wrote:I suggest you go and visit Marktneukirchen in Voigtland, near the border to Czech Republic.

There you find the factories of

Helmut Voigt (contrabass, bass and tenor trombones)

Jürgen Voigt (all sort of low brass)

Schmidt (mouthpieces)

B&S (tubas and euphs and other low brass)

Musikinstrument Museum (nice collection of trombones and the largest tuba ever build)

14 km away is Klingental where one finds two tuba builders (sorry, don't remember the name)

Nearby is Cerveny in Kraslice - a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, just across the border.
Is one of the tuba builders in Klingenthal perhaps Hartmut Geilert? I believe he was the lead tuba mastercraftsman at B&S for several decades. He and Voigt brass built that gigantic BBBb 'Reisentuba' a few years ago. There are YouTube vids of it :tuba:
Mark Finley wrote:Having mainly been a cerveny owner for 30 years, that factory really interests me
It would be great to visit all the tuba/brass factories in Europe. Dunno about you, but if I could only pick two, it would be the B&S/VMI and Cerveny/Amati factories for two big reasons.....

- They both make a LOT of tubas and low brass, and
- They are both fairly close to each other; each one on each side of the Germany/Czech Republic border. :idea:
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Re: European tuba tour?

Post by tubeast »

So Mark, have You decided upon Your means of Transportation yet, during Your stay in Europe ?
Car ? Train ? Plane ? All of the above ?

Also: please define "near". Example:
The straight line between Salzburg and Zürich passes the lake of Constance and misses my place by about 35 km.
If You go by car and drive via Tyrolia and Arlberg pass, You could simply get off the Autobahn at Bludenz and stop by for a hot or cold beverage of choice.
Vorarlberg is an awesome Region to spend a couple of days and go for a hike.

I´ve been to Karlsruhe University way back when, so I might be able propose some sites to visit there, as well. That simply depends on Your subjects of interest.
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